Ian Narbeth

In principle I would agree with you. However, given the shortage of landlords, something bold needs to be done. How about restoring wear and tear allowances? Grants for EPC upgrades and help with renewables?

Unless landlords see that a corner has been turned, their confidence will not be restored.... Read More

Generation Rent and Shelter are doubling down on their own foolishness. The Renters Reform Bill will not deliver on commitments. When, as is inevitable, it is re-introduced by Labour (probably with some anti-landlord bells and whistles on) I predict it will make the housing crisis worse.

The Government has "delivered" a series of anti-landlord policies since Osborne's disastrous s24 tax hike. Has this made things better for tenants? No. Has it hurt landlords? Yes, undoubtedly. Will more of the same achieve a different result? Only an insane person would think so.

The Government should be subsidising housing providers (AKA private landlords) not persecuting them. Until HMG and the tenant lobby groups get that into their thick skulls and start helping those who are providing accommodation, matters will not improve.... Read More

The Building Safety Act is going to make the problem of conveyancing of flats worse over time. Much worse. A major problem is the "strike date" of 14 February 2022. The status of the owners and their wealth at that date is critical. As time goes by and properties transfer on death or at auction or with incomplete information, it will become hard if not impossible for solicitors to advise buyers and sellers with certainty as to liability because the facts will be unknown or unknowable.

The legislation was rushed through in response to Grenfell and problems of defective cladding. It created the appalling precedent that civil liability for something a person had not done and perhaps had little control over, depending on how wealthy they were and not on the usual principles of negligence. To borrow a legal saying, hard cases make bad law.... Read More

I assume you are unrepresented. I also assume that nobody else, such as an agent, might have demanded such payments (e.g. did the letting agent charge a prohibited payment?)

If the solicitor does not respond within a reasonable time (a few days as, by definition, they should know the basis of their assertion),I would write to them saying that if they cannot prove their assertion (a) they may be in breach of the Code of Conduct https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/code-conduct-solicitors/
and (b) the comment is defamatory and that you will draw this to the attention of the court.... Read More

I disagree with the thesis of this article. As I have said elsewhere, the RRB is bad but it is coming. If Labour get a working majority (and even if they need to rely on other parties), they will reintroduce the Bill or an even worse Bill.
The Tories have ended up pleasing nobody. The Bill may even become law sooner than if Rishi had not called the Election.... Read More

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"It will be interesting to hear what the Conservatives have to say about helping or growing the PRS after years of neglect."
As the saying goes, there's none so deaf as those who will not hear. The Tories have not been listening to landlords for years. They have been seduced by tenant lobby groups. Gove talks about s21 as if it were terrible, instead of the thing that brought millions of properties into the rental market after the stultifying Rent Acts.
"The only ones that have stood up for us, to my memory, are the Tory MPs who made some amendments to the Renters (Reform) Bill and were criticised for doing so."
The input from those MPs is too little, too late. They should have stopped the promise to abolish from going in the manifesto and should have lobbied years ago. Paradoxically, by holding the Bill up on the ground that before s21 goes, the court backlog has to be cleared (most of us will be dead before that happens!!), they have increased the prospects of a worse Bill when Labour re-introduce it as I talked about in my article last week. Thanks for nothing!... Read More

Pace Tom Darling, the Renters Reform Bill is far from dead. Paradoxically, if Labour is in charge after the Election, the Bill may be passed sooner than it would have been under the current Government. The Bill is in a shape that Labour accept. They could pass it very quickly. The fear as I expressed in my article last week is that Labour will add bells and whistles to it.
On a separate note, I do wish that Ben Beadle would talk about challenging "rogue and criminal landlords" as often as the likes of Tom Darling and Ben Twomey talk about challenging rogue and criminal tenants whose number far exceeds that of bad landlords.... Read More

Mick, stop, stop! People will think we are a mutual adoration society :-)... Read More

Mick, I regularly quote your wise words: "At the end of the day, the tenant pays for everything."... Read More

"Why doesn't the LNRA lobby energetically for the re-introduction of Section 24 ?
If Section 24 was re-introduced it would have a massive impact to the sector"

Sorry to be a pedant but ... I think you mean "lobby energetically for the revocation of Section 24".... Read More

As a pet owner, I have sympathy for those wanting to keep a pet. However, the Government has chosen to interfere with freedom of contract and heavily penalises any landlord who, prudently and reasonably, asks for a higher deposit.

The courts and deposit adjudicators bend over backwards to reject landlords' claims (Can you prove the furniture wasn't covered in scratches and that the carpet and wallpaper didn't smell of tom cat at the start of the tenancy? "Oh, your photo doesn't show that. Claim rejected so, tough!")

Even if "the vast majority of pets cause no damage", so what? If a landlord is unfortunate enough to get one that does, it can take months to get the tenant out and the house restored and the landlord will lose out financially.

Message to MPs and Cats Protection: If you spend decades cultivating a general hatred and distrust of landlords, don't expect any favours.... Read More

Elena, you may be interested in my article here.

I don't think NRLA are a scam. They are just frightened that if they are too aggressive with Ministers that they will be excluded from the corridors of power. They need to be more effective at lobbying. The trouble is the Press and the general public, half of whom are on below average wages, generally feel sorry for tenants.... Read More

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They are correct and if the market would accept tenanted properties, that would save time and money and mean that tenants were not asked to leave because the landlord wanted to sell.

The problem is buyers and mortgagees are fearful of inheriting a shed load of problems if the seller has not got the increasingly complex paperwork associated with tenancies in order or if the tenants turn out to be wrong 'uns. There is little sign that evicting defaulting tenants will be made quicker or that the administrative burden on landlords will be reduced this side of the Second Coming so don't hold your breath that the number of available investments will increase.... Read More

The average house price in the UK is £302,000 https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/housepriceindex/december2023.

Even assuming the empty homes are worth say 30% less, that's £210,000. Assume that each house can be rendered suitable for letting at a cost of £40,000.

£250,000 x 90,000 = £22.5 billion. And that is per year. Even if mortgage lenders will lend 75% of the house price and a lower percentage of the refurb cost, a lot more than £1.25 billion will be needed. Alternatively, prices will be driven down and owners forced to sell.... Read More

Too little, too late. There have been a dozen Housing Ministers in the past 13 years and this is the first time, so far as I am aware, that one has commented on this topic.

The guidance that “Housing authorities should not consider it reasonable for an applicant to remain in occupation until eviction by a bailiff" is weak.

It should say: "We will make it unlawful and will penalise any authority that instructs or encourages an applicant to remain in occupation until eviction by a bailiff. We require that landlords obey court orders. It is only right that tenants do so too."... Read More

The Renters’ Reform Coalition needs to get its story straight. Do they want short term tenancies where the landlord has no guarantee that the tenant he has spent time and money to house will be around for more than a couple of months or are they concerned about living in three or more private rented homes in the previous five years? This latter is as meaningless a statistic as you could find. For many tenants, the flexibility of a 6 or 12 month tenancy is ideal. They choose to leave.
I would gladly offer long term tenancies if I knew I could evict promptly when the tenant stops paying rent, damages the property or causes problems by antisocial behaviour.... Read More

Given that upgrading EPC ratings has not and probably will never be required for owner-occupied properties, a fair solution is that landlords must declare what the rating is and tenants can then decide whether to pay the asking rent.
Many properties are difficult and some are all but impossible to upgrade at reasonable cost. Without vacant possession, it is harder and more expensive.

The clumsy hand of Government proposed Draconian fines for landlords and the requirement to spend substantial sums every five years, regardless of the value of the property or whether such expenditure would achieve a C rating.

Fortunately, someone realised that making hundreds of thousands of properties unlettable would not be good for tenants or landlords. Whether Labour has the brains to work this out remains to be seen. Once section 21 goes, landlords may be stuck with a tenant but unable to upgrade.... Read More

The London Renters Union think “It’s time to kick the landlord lobby & their mates in government out!”
With mates like those in Government, landlords don't need enemies. The tenant lobby have had their wish for years and things have got worse for renters. Draconian tax laws, the threat of 5 years in prison for letting to illegal immigrants, the banning of reasonable fees, courts that bend over backwards to find against landlords and now the abolition of s21 is imminent. That will be very bad for tenants and the lobby groups will, let us hope, learn the truth of the saying: "Be careful what you wish for!" Sadly, tenants with CCJs for rent arrears will be excluded from the PRS. Victims of antisocial tenants will be told the landlord can do %$?!% all about it unless they are prepared to risk their lives giving evidence against a violent neighbour. What a mess!... Read More